Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2009 – Day I

Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2009 started with a keynote speech delivered by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive, Microsoft Corporation.

around 10:00 am Agni started performing Tech.Ed Song, while they were ending Tech.Ed song SteveB entered on the stage with his super energetic aura.

some key points of his speech

he started he talk with talking about the economy.

he mentioned that every person in IT should tell himself every night that he made right choice by selected IT as his carrier.

Pharma, Energy Science all evolving with innovation in Information Technology.

IT Departments have been under pressure with "Do more, with less". Customers can Save money by deploying new tech, moving to more RAD Platform. Dynamic IT is more about "Do more, with less optimization".

Windows 7  and Win Server 2008 R2 to be available by Christmas Win Vista was most "talked" about OS  :) Win Mobile 6.5 to debut this year.

SharePoint is becoming Microsoft’s most revenue generating product.

during QA session SteveB steps down from the stage into the audience to take questions.

there was a question for dates of Windows Azure release dates – no direct answer from SteavB but a big hint towards PDC 2009. while answering another question about Silvelright on mobile phone SteaveB mention that Silverlight Mobile being developed from Microsoft's India Dev Center at Hyderabad .

SteveB mentioned that India is the place where most of people get trained on Computer Science  Technology and after Redmond Hyderabad development Center is words 2nd largest center for Microsoft, while answering one Question “why he choose India Tech.Ed and not US Tech.Ed this time.

that's all from SteavB key note

after that we moved to Community Zone, lots of fun there at Community Zone, all My MVP friends, UG Leads few Ms Employees were there 4 unconferance session in a day, nice sessions by my friends Vikram on sliverlight, Pinal, Amit and Jacob on SQL Server.

we also recorded small session in regional languages where we talked about Microsoft technology in our languages like Telagu, Marathi, Gujrathi etc, this will carry on tomorrow also.

mean while I got chance to attend very nice session on my favorite BizTalk RFID, a session was going on in Technology tent and fortunately I was just going by that way so I come to know about session, as this session was not printed on agenda paper, don't know why ?, but really nice discussion with BizTalk RFID Team from IDC also got some secret info about BizTalk Mobile is working with Web services and MSMQ on Mobile platform. its NDA info so cant post here… but very interesting…  tomorrow there is a session on BizTalk RFID 2009 and SharePoint, am going to attend them for sure…

We got very nice response at Community Zone, where we hosted  a Quiz and Hunt leader contest. we distributed lots of goodies like INETA/Culminis/PASS pens, t-shirts, caps, stress bolls etc.

rush at Community Zone…

there were lots of very nice session at Tech.Ed but unfortunately i was able to attend only one Technical session, but tomorrow for sure i will attend more…

and our day 1 ended with nice bear party “ Mobile Developer night”

Session on My favorite BizTalk RFID in TechEd India 2009 – I am going to attend this session for sure…

Just going though all list of session and speakers on Microsoft TechEd India 2009 Website.

I found very interesting session for me, session on my Favorite topic or i can say my favorite product… I just love this module of BizTalk server, BizTalk RFID..

there is a session on BizTalk RFID 2009 in Microsoft TechEd India 2009 at Hyderabad.

Microsoft BizTalk RFID 2009 – Connecting the extreme edge to the cloud  on 14th May, 2009 at Timing: 16:30 - 17:45

Speakers: Kalyana Sundaram

RFID Mobile devices are making a significant impact to warehouse (“edge locations”) operations today. On the other hand, many high performing companies are taking advantage of the cloud based infrastructure to collect events designed to provide high visibility of assets in a supply chain. In BizTalk RFID 2009, Microsoft and its large ecosystem of hardware and software partners have provided the capabilities to collect physical events from mobile devices and use the BizTalk RFID Server to deliver events via EPCIS to cloud based services. This session demonstrates the compelling mobile to server to cloud based scenario that is sure to revolutionize asset visibility in the future.

Start Using BizTalk RFID

ones you have BizTalk RFID Server Ready, question is, Now how to use it ? very common question in everyone's mind ones you completed you BizTalk RFID installation successfully. if you are not ready with your BizTalk RFID Server then you may want to Ref my previous post “Installing and Configuring BizTalk RFID”.

Now am assuming you are ready with your BizTalk RFID Server installed along with your Favorite RFID Reader.

Go to Start menu, browse to Microsoft BizTalk RFID and start RFID Manager.

you can see following windows.

make sure there is Green icon at server name indicating Server is started if not right click and say start.

You can see in tree view there are 4 main components

1. Processes
2. Devices
3. Device Groups
4. Device Provider.

Device Provider.

The most Important thing you need to communicate with reader is BizTalk RFID Device Provider. This provider is reader dependent and expected to release by Reader/ device manufacturer.if you don't have provider then contact you device manufacture for device provider if its not available with them then you can search internet for same if it is released by some other company just like for my thing magic m4 reader. I have Thing Magic M4 reader for which provider is released by RFID Solutions. This provider comes with a nice installer (setup.exe and msi package). which installs provider and starts it automatically, or you can manually install it, just right click on Device providers and  New Provider and follow the steps in that wizard.

ones you successfully complete installation of provider, make sure your provider is started and showing status as “started-ok”

Next is add Device to BizTalk.

How to add RFID device/Reader to BizTalk ?

if your Provider supports then your provider can automatically discover device on network or you can tell provider to discover device by simply right click on provider and say Discover.  ( this may not applicable to all, am writing it as it supported by my device provider)

you can also add device(s) manually. it is very simple process and 4-5 steps you can easily add device to BizTalk. you can add device on TCP or serial port to but again totally depend on device provider support for TCP and Serial port. let see how to add device on TCP. the process is almost same only for TCP you need to add IP address, port no etc where for serial port you need to provide serial port no / COM port, Baud rate Data bits, parity etc parameters other process is same.

right click on “Devices” and Say New Device before this make sure your device is connected and running…

It will start “Add Device Wizard'” here you can select single device or multiple device to add. lets select single device. select add single device and click next.

a windows with list of all installed provider will come, select provider required or supported for your device. here i have installed only one provider which it showing in list, am going to select that provider “Thing Magic”

Next stage it will ask you Connect using TCP or Serial  ? lets select TCP, enter IP address of your Reader, and a port 23 (telnet port), please ref your provider documentation for this port no this may change for diffract devices and providers. so enter IP address and port no and click next…

next level you need to select a Group for your device, you can select from existing or can create new, to create new group click on new group a popup windows will open, enter group name and description of your device group. click ok then select created group and click next to continue..

now it will ask you authentication details, ref. your device documentation for these details, you may keep this blank if device do not require any authentication. click next to continue…

after this stage it will show a success Screen with your device details like device name, firmware version etc.

click finish button to complete process.

you can verify device in Devices section in your RFID Manager. in left panel click on devices, it will show you list of all devices added to BizTalk.

make sure device showing status as Closed and not disabled, if it shows disabled then right click on device and say enable, it will prompt you for authentication details, provide the details and click OK, this will enable device and you can see status closed. this status changes to Open only when you are running some RFID process.

we will see in next section how to create a process in BizTalk RFID using RFID Manager as well as programmatically.

How to clear or Reset COM port ?

Windows always assign a COM port no (like COM2, COM3 etc) every time you connect a USB device like modem, mobile phone or specially serial to USB convertors to system, and this no goes on increasing as every time you connect device windows reserve that port and next time it assign new number.

I recently face some issue because of this, I want to test my new thing magic m5e RFID Reader with BizTalk RFID which is connected to USB of my laptop using a serial to USB convertor, here my system assign a port no COM19, this was a big problem for me as my RFID Device Provider can only access up to COM5 ( it is in pre-beta)  so i need to change COM port to less than COM5, when I tried to do that it shows me list of all 19 ports and mentioned in brackets as “in use”, so i need to free all these ports which are locked by system. I searched every where in device manager , control panel no interface is available to do this in windows, then i found a nice solution for this which allow you to free all ports but for this you need to edit registry,

here are the steps which you can use to free all post.

1. Click start –> Run –> type regedit and click OK button.
2. This will open a Registry editor.
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\COM Name Arbiter

Now right panel , you can see a key ComDB  right click to that key and click modify. 

In value Data section select all and delete  reset to Zero ‘0’.

click OK

Close Registry editor and then restart your computer. all COM ports are now Free, you may  need to reinstall any USB to serial convertor.

Note: It is always good to take back up before deleting any entry from Registry, to take back up for Com Name Arbiter, in left panel right click on COM Name Arbiter and say Export, save with some name and appropriate location.

Microsoft unveils Retail Experience Center

Microsoft Created a  unveils Retail Experience Center at Microsoft Corp.’s headquarters in Redmond showcasing multiple RFID enabled process Starting from back store receiving location where items get tagged, store inventory is tracked and finally RFID enabled POS system helps expedite check out process. along with other RFID processes.

Microsoft Retail Experience Center is a private, 20,000-square-foot facility housing a fully functioning, interactive store environment, from point of service to receiving dock.

Retail Experience Center Video:

Ref: Microsoft Press Pass

BizTalk RFID Mobile Evaluation Version is Available

Microsoft Announced availability of its mobile version of BizTalk RFID “BizTalk RFID Mobile”.

Evaluation is available for download at

BizTalk RFID Mobile for 32 bit systems

BizTalk RFID Mobile for 64 bit Systems

launch events are planed in Las Vegas(Dec 8-10), Paris(Dec 8-10) and Dubai(Jan 5-7).

 

Original post: BizTalk RFID Mobile Evaluation Version is Available !!!

Installing and Configuring BizTalk RFID

Installing server products like BizTalk or SharePoint is always a painful work for me, as there are too many dependencies and prerequisites for these servers. It is not a simple installation like Office or Visual studio :)

When I decided to install BizTalk RFID on my machine, and as like everyone I was going through the installation guide at very first stage I was totally confused between BizTalk Server and BizTalk RFID. though BizTalk RFID is part of BizTalk Server 2006 R2, the most important thing I want say is , You don't need to install full BizTalk Server 2006 R2 on your machine to use BizTalk RFID, you can choose to install only BizTalk RFID.

you can install BizTalk RFID on:

• Windows XP Professional with SP2 or higher
• Windows Server 2003 with SP1or higher
• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2008 ( I am not very sure about this as it is not mentioned officially anywhere on Microsoft website but I found one article on MS innovation blog which says that you can install it on windows server 2008 Enterprise edition.)

Now we are going to install BizTalk RFID (only)

Before actually start installation lets make a list of all prerequisites.

1. Windows XP Professional with SP2 or Windows Server 2003 with SP1 or windows vista
2. Internet Information Services (IIS)
3. World Wide Web Publishing Service
4. Microsoft Message Queuing service (MSMQ)
5. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 – Download
6. Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0 - Download
7. Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 – Download
8. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with SP2, or Microsoft SQL Sever 2000 with SP4 – Download Express
9. Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 – Download Trial

 

Note: This article is not for Development Machine, so I am not considering Visual Studio, or any SDK required.

I have a Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 fresh installed machine with me.

make sure you are logged in as Administrator

Step 1: Install IIS, MSMQ, WWW Publishing services from Add Remove Program - Windows Components section.

Step 2: Install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0

Step 3: Install Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0

Select Runtime or Administrative Tool option ( If you are installing BizTalk on Development machine and planning to use same machine for development then  select other option which requires Visual Studio 2005 pre-installed on machine.

Step 4: Install Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0

Step 5: Install SQL Server Express

Make sure you have windows installer 3.1 installed before starting SQL Express installation

Now I am ready to install BizTalk RFID.

Step 6: Start Installing BizTalk RFID – Insert BizTalk Server 2006 R2 DVD and Select BizTalk RFID option.

click next, then accept License agreement and Provide Product key then

Select right type of installation

Setup allows you to choose from the following types of installation:

• Typical. Installs the following features on your computer:
  • RFID Services
  • RFID Tools and Client Connector
• Custom. Allows you to choose the features that you want to install:
  • RFID Services
  • RFID Tools and Client Connector
  • RFID SDK
• Complete. Installs all three of the following features:
  • RFID Services
  • RFID Tools and Client Connector
  • RFID SDK

 

If you select Complete installation with SDK then Visual studio 2005 must be installed before.

I am selected Typical but includes RFID Service and Tools.

Next select SQL Server details, you can install database on same machine or on remote machine, provide authentication details as per SQL server settings

if you are installing BizTalk RFID on same machine second time then you may select check box “Overwrite contents of RFID configuration database

Select RFID Service Account which will be used by RFID Service to run.

you are DONE with setup click finish, this will popup Business Rule Configuration windows, enter Service account details and click configure, select basic configuration, it is recommended for new users.  for Windows XP and Windows Vista default service account is  RFIDSvcAcc

Now your BizTalk RFID Server is ready to use. to check go to start menu-> in Microsoft BizTalk RFID select RFID Manager

it will show you following window with status of RFID Server, if it is started then you have successfully installed RFID Server and now can proceed to use it with devices

 

Important Note:

1. RFID Services Port Number;
The port number that RFID Services uses has changed from 8081 (in the previous version) to 7891. You must add 7891 to the list of exceptions in Windows Firewall.

2. Before you install BizTalk RFID, uninstall any previous version, and delete the BizTalk RFID installation folder.

3.For BizTalk RFID, IIS must be configured to run in native mode. BizTalk RFID is not supported in IIS 5.0 Isolation mode

4.The SQL Server or MSDE database must be available and configured to support Windows authentication.

you may want Refer full installation guide publish by Microsoft at http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/a/9/8a947a42-4f44-4f9a-886a-2fe48f8ecc6e/Installation%20Guide%20for%20BizTalk%20RFID.htm

Microsoft BizTalk RFID - Robust, scalable, secure server platform for RFID solutions

15 days back I was contacted by one of my old client with whom I am working almost 2+ years and architected and developed couple of applications for them. when I went to his office, in very first meeting I came to know that, this time scope of project is vast and this is going to be a mission critical project as we have very less time to execute we have to work on Live system . though RFID is not new for me but this time requirement was somewhat different. initially I thought about all those common requirement was there like read tag, write tag, based on that execute couple of event etc. but when they told me that they want deploy this application in 7 cities of India in first phase and they want to do a runtime synchronization and also want to generate reports and publish same data on web etc and also one most important thing is system need to handle high volume.

I was thinking architecture with my limited  knowledge :P, like use of SQL Server level synchronization or use of web service to update etc. mean while I was also searching internet ( may be using Google) I found something very interesting “Microsoft BizTalk RFID”. I heard these words couple of times from Microsoft people in various sessions or meeting but never bother to know or understand. but when i read about and that solve my entire problem.

BizTalk RFID + BizTalk RFID Mobile + Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 + SQL Server 2005 ---- Done !!! completes my all requirements.

AS said by Microsoft “Microsoft BizTalk RFID is an innovative device management and event processing platform at the edge of the enterprise. It is designed to provide a scalable, extensible platform for development, deployment, and management of rich RFID and sensor solutions.”

its really very simple to use, understand, and also very easy to deploy, secure, scalable platform. one can easily learn and develop applications.

now onwards I will try to share my experience of working with BizTalk RFID staring from installation , architecture development. deployment etc. so keep visiting my blog for all these update…

you can read about BizTalk RFID at http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/rfid.aspx